Kwame Brown

SOON AFTER a felony charge was filed against the brother of former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown, his attorney released a statement that amounted to a thumb in the eye to federal prosecutors. "My client Che Brown was charged with bank fraud — not campaign finance fraud or theft or anything remotely related to his role in his brother's political campaign," said A. Scott Bolden in reporting Mr. Brown will plead guilty "not to political corruption, but to his personal mistakes.

VIRGINIA D.C. man who killed jeweler gets life A District man who pleaded guilty in the killing of a Columbia Pike jewelry store owner last year was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole. James Sylvester Caroline, 53, fatally shot Tommy K. Wong, 52, in a robbery of Wong's Capital Jewelers store on July 27. Police found Caroline with the help of surveillance footage that showed a man wearing a bright neon traffic vest robbing the store and shooting Wong in...

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown has had to put up with a lot of snickers in the past couple of weeks. You know, "fully loaded" this and "black-on-black" that. Since The Washington Post published revelations that Brown (D) was ordered not one but two city-paid Lincoln Navigator SUVs in recent months, he's been forced to deal with renewed doubts over whether he has the right priorities to lead the city forward. For a politico who's long operated with a chip on his shoulder, it has to hurt to be a punch line . Brown's SUV...

Former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown will not be allowed to travel outside the Washington area for his nephew's graduation ceremony next month, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Brown had hoped to attend the celebration in Raleigh, N.C., as both an uncle and a "surrogate father" for the son of his brother, Che Brown, according to court papers filed last week by Frederick D. Cooke, Brown's attorney. Che Brown himself will not be able to attend his son's graduation the weekend of May 4. After pleading guilty to lying on...

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown's 2008 reelection campaign failed to account for more than a quarter-million dollars in donations and expenses, and used a now-defunct political consulting firm to pass $239,000 to a firm operated by his brother, according to an audit released Tuesday by the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance. In a blistering critique of his bookkeeping, the audit cited widespread irregularities and discrepancies in how Brown (D) raised and spent money to win a second term as an at-large...

A day after being charged with a federal felony and resigning as D.C. Council chairman , Kwame R. Brown was accused of violating District laws in his 2008 campaign for an at-large council seat. The misdemeanor charge, filed in D.C. Superior Court, carries a maximum term of six months in jail. Brown, 41, is expected to plead guilty Friday to that charge and to a count of felony bank fraud in separate appearances in superior and federal court. The government's investigation into the former chairman's...

T he troubling audit of D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown's 2008 campaign finances stands to incur some collateral damage on his favored candidate, Sekou Biddle, to fill the at-large seat he vacated. Biddle (D), who is filling the seat on an interim basis, has been struggling to maintain distance from Brown, who lent Biddle crucial early support, helping him win an internal party vote for the interim appointment. But Brown, who has since become entangled in stories about his use of city...

Former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown was given a curfew and sternly admonished Tuesday morning by a federal judge for failing to report to authorities by telephone, a condition of his release in a bank fraud case. Brown, who is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 13, apologized during a brief hearing in the District's federal court for not calling pretrial officials on three occasions as required by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon . The judge placed him on an 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. curfew and...

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown is adding photos to the office wall on which he displays a collage of images from his term as chairman. His staff is booking speaking engagements and other events through October. In September, Brown will represent the District as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He's working 15-hour days and gets energy from the bin of dried fruit and fiber bars near the desk of one of his budget analysts. He needed a quick jolt Wednesday...

His boat was " Bullet Proof ," but he was not. In fact, it was Kwame R. Brown's 38-foot Chris-Craft cabin cruiser — or, more precisely, the home-equity loan taken out to pay for it — that became the hole in the D.C. Council chairman's political Kevlar. Federal prosecutors charged Brown (D) on Wednesday with a felony count of bank fraud ; he resigned and is expected to plead guilty Friday. The charge comes precisely five months after Brown's former council colleague Harry Thomas Jr. (D)

"THERE'S A REAL difference between not being criminally charged versus running a campaign properly. " That point, made by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. this month as he closed the criminal case against Kwame R. Brown's 2008 reelection campaign, is apparently lost on the former D.C. Council chairman. That's all the more reason we hope that D.C. election officials are serious about pursuing lingering issues that surround this campaign. Mr. Machen called upon the D.C. Board of Elections — which had requested the federal...

As expected, Che Brown, the brother of former D.C. Council chairman and convicted felon Kwame Brown , pleaded guilty this week to a federal charge of bank fraud. Kwame Brown pleaded guilty to a similar charge in June and is serving a six-month sentence of home detention. Are a judicial tongue-lashing and a curfew in Che Brown's future, too? We won't know until March 5, when he is scheduled for sentencing. More intriguing is what U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. had to say this week...

The District's top federal prosecutor urged city elections officials to keep probing the reelection campaign of former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown on Thursday even as his office concluded its criminal investigation. The announcement by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. that his office does not plan to bring additional charges related to Brown's 2008 campaign came hours after the former council chairman's brother pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Che Brown, 44, admitted in federal court to lying...

SOON AFTER a felony charge was filed against the brother of former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown, his attorney released a statement that amounted to a thumb in the eye to federal prosecutors. "My client Che Brown was charged with bank fraud — not campaign finance fraud or theft or anything remotely related to his role in his brother's political campaign," said A. Scott Bolden in reporting Mr. Brown will plead guilty "not to political corruption, but to his personal mistakes.

The brother of former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown will plead guilty in federal court to lying on loan documents, his attorney said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors charged Che M. Brown with bank fraud in court papers filed Wednesday, accusing him of inflating his income by an estimated $35,000 on loan documents he submitted to a mortgage company in 2010. The charge against Brown, 44, came in a "criminal information," a document that can be filed only with...

"I AM NOT a victim. It was stupid. I was wrong. " With those words, with his voice cracking, former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) faced a federal judge who, in sentencing him for bank fraud, spared him jail time in favor of home detention and community service. It was a far cry from the January morning in 2011 when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. swore Mr. Brown into the city's second-highest elective office. It was also a sad but powerful reminder that no one is...

The District's top federal prosecutor urged city elections officials to keep probing the reelection campaign of former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown on Thursday even as his office concluded its criminal investigation. The announcement by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. that his office does not plan to bring additional charges related to Brown's 2008 campaign came hours after the former council chairman's brother pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Che Brown, 44, admitted in federal court to lying on loan documents,...

CHARLOTTE, Feb. 11 -- The two common links between Michael Jordan's time running the Washington Wizards and his current stint running the Charlotte Bobcats have been wasted lottery picks and a lack of playoff appearances. In Washington, Jordan will always be remembered for using the No. 1 overall pick on Kwame Brown in 2001. Brown never developed as a Wizard, quit on the team during the 2005 playoffs and has since bounced around the league. Current Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld pulled off one of his best moves by...

Former D.C. Council chairman Kwame R. Brown was sentenced to one day in the custody of federal marshals and six months of home detention during an emotional Tuesday morning court hearing that punctuated the unraveling of a once-promising political career. Brown never faced serious jail time — prosecutors and his attorneys were quibbling over how many days, not months, he should serve — but the former public official nevertheless choked up as he apologized to a judge for lying on...

Votes have been counted. Winners are smiling; losers are sulking. Life, as we know it, should go on. But it can't. A major piece of business is still hanging fire: sorting out the city's corrupt from the incorruptible. Without progress on that front, government in the District remains tainted. The sorting out falls to U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. He's due no pity. The task is of his own choosing. Machen has said that when he took office...